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Friday, June 17, 2011

Off-hours on Brown Mountain

Back in the pre-fire days I liked to ride Brown Mountain on the weekend because there were lots of people out and up there and it was fun and inspiring to be a part of that shared experience. But as I think I mentioned somewhere earlier the conditions up there are quite different after the fire. What used to be a dirt road wide enough to drive a truck up has narrowed considerably due to small slides and plant growth to what is now basically single track. Most of the original road way still seems to be intact it’s just sorta buried. And it might come back but until it does it’s singletrack up there. Which for most people would be fantastic news. Isn’t that what every mountain biker is always raving about? It’s like everyone’s got a singletrack mind out there. And I too enjoy me some good singletrack assuming it’s not too technical. Brown Mountain singletrack/road is now about the limit of what I like in single track. It’s great, don’t get me wrong, but I feel like I really need to have it to myself now. There’s no room to pass anyone in either direction so one person always has to stop. Not a big deal if there’s only a few people up there but crowded weekends could be a bit of a hassle for a while. I only have so much patience for constantly clicking in and out of my pedals. So for the past three weeks, since I first found out it was open again, I’ve been heading out and up on off-hours.

Also of note, I haven’t seen any of the regulars up there yet. There was sort of a crew of several people that I would see pretty regularly up there and that was fun too – I miss that. So maybe I’ll have to brave the crowds to find them again.